Brazenness in retail thefts, along with local criminal connections have led to an uptick in shoplifting — or retail fraud — throughout Troy, according to Sgt. Andy Breidenich.

“The grab-and-run types of thefts — in broad daylight — are happening more and more,” he said. “Anecdotally, retail thefts have gone through the roof.”

Three Tuesday incidents proved as an example of the kind of mentality that some shoplifters have exhibited.

The first happened around 3 p.m. at a Macy’s store at 2750 Big Beaver Road. Troy police reported that a 24-year-old woman was detained after she shoplifted 22 items — totaling a value of $812.60 — from the store.

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The woman was pushing her 1-year-old child in a stroller during the incident. Once she left the store without paying for the items, she was stopped by the store’s loss prevention personnel.

Further investigation showed that the Birmingham woman had dressed her child in a stolen outfit, and that she had marijuana in her purse. She was cited for stealing the items and for possession of marijuana, authorities said.

“We usually see an uptick during the holiday season,” Breidenich said. “There’s more activity, so there are more opportunities to steal and not get caught.”

However, Breidenich — who came through the Troy department with a specialty in retail thefts — said shoplifting is on the rise in his city.

Around 7 p.m. Tuesday, police were called on another shoplifting incident at a Kohl’s off John R Road. Officials said a 40-year-old Sterling Heights woman attempted to leave the store without paying for a pair of shoes she had tried on. She was given a citation for retail fraud.

An unusual incident, involving three men and four women, took place around 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Police said that the group stole 37 pieces of Victoria’s Secret merchandise with a retail value of $2,453 from the women’s store — some distracting employees while others stuffed the items into coats and shopping bags.

None of the suspects were taken into custody by police, but one was described as a 30-year-old black female with the word “Gone” written on the back of her jacket, while descriptions of another suspect was a 19-year-old black man with gold teeth, according to Troy police.

“Troy has such a large footprint in retail” that the number of incidents will always be high, Breidenich said.

But it’s hard to give a concrete percentage rate.

“It would appear that there’s a lot of people caught for retail fraud, but a lot of thefts don’t get called in,” said the officer. “So much is skewed because of the actual retail frauds that aren’t reported.”

He said a reason for this is that some of the smaller stores don’t have a loss prevention team.

Breidenich said there is a system in place to share information about these types of thefts quicker.

“We have an email loss prevention network — it’s now up to about 350 on the mailing list — that’s sort of a hub that shares retail fraud information,” Breidenich said.

Back in 2005, Troy Police Department officials created the email distribution network.

“We found that there’s so much crime that we couldn’t limit it to just Troy,” Breidenich said. “We opened it up to the Metro Detroit community, and even extended it north, to the Saginaw area.”

The members of the list include retail management such as loss prevention officers and managers, individual store managers that might not have security, and local law enforcement agencies, added Breidenich.